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Wulfthrith was a member of a noble Anglo-Saxon family who became a nun at Wilton, receiving the veil from the hands of St. Aethelwold, Bishop of Winchester. Here, she was seduced by King Edgar the Peaceable and later gave birth to St. Edith of Wilton. Great was the scandal, for the nun's habit was the one thing which was to be respected. The Archbishop of Canterbury, St. Dunstan, condemned the King to abstain from wearing his crown for seven years. After the death of his wife, Edgar tried to persuade Wulfthrith to leave her convent and marry him, but she preferred to remain with her daughter at Wilton where she made such progress in all virtues that she was chosen abbess, died on 22nd July AD 998 and eventually honoured as a saint.

Edited from Agnes Dunbar's "A Dictionary of Saintly Women" (1904).